U.S. retailers posted their best monthly sales performance in February since just before the recession started in 2007, as leaner inventories resulted in more sales at full price. Brian Tunick, managing director and specialty retail analyst at JPMorgan said he sees consumers continuing to make a comeback.

Greece will sell about 5 billion euros of 10 year bonds (at about a 6.3 percent yield) — it is well oversubscribed. They need to refinance up to 23 billion euros of maturing debt coming in the Apr/May time frame. 2. Retail sales for February have topped expectations. 3. Wal-Mart increased its dividend to $1.21 from $1.09 per year. Over 60 companies in the S&P 500 have increased their dividend since the start of the year. 4. A bankruptcy judge gave the management of General Growth Properties won a four month extension to keep control of the bankruptcy restructuring.

January retail same store sales: how could the numbers be so far off? Retailers, for the most part, reported numbers higher than expected, in some cases WAY HIGHER than expected. How could sell-side analysts, who provide the estimates, be so far off? There's two problems...

S&P 500 futures lost about 4 points on the disappointing weekly initial jobless claims number. Sovereign debt issues, which popped up again yesterday, are back down in a big way today: Portugal down 3.2 percent, Spain down 2.6 percent, Greece down 1.7 percent. European banks are weak.

Attention Super Bowl Advertisers: Are you mobile Web-enabled? Consumers are surfing the Web from their phones more often. If you are spending the money on advertising during the Big Game, it's worth considering whether your site is optimized for smartphones.

It's time for retailers to wake up. Fashion shoppers are abandoning basics and looking for unique, stylish items, and stores that break the recessionary trend of playing it safe will reap the rewards, analysts said.

Stocks skidded Thursday as the dollar rose, putting pressure on stocks that outweighed encouraging reports on employment and retail sales. Bank of America, Sears and Bed, Bath & Beyond were among the early leaders, while Alcoa stumbled.

Markets overseas fell in Thursday trading, with China’s Shanghai Composite falling nearly 2 percent for its biggest drop in nearly 2 weeks. This came as China’s central bank made a surprising short-term tightening move by raising rates on its 3-month bills for the first time in over 4 months.

The Dow closed last week at its second highest level in 2009. What should investors expect from the markets going forward? Nick Calamos, head of investments and CIO of Calamos Investments, and Scott Black, president of Delphi Management, shared their insights.